"A student researching into my work has actually traced the newspapers and magazines where I found these images and has found out that many of them illustrate a collection of gruesome stories, murders and suicides which contrast with the images used. There is a contrast between the message carried by the text and that suppressed by the illustration." - Richter on Atlas -

 

Some of Gerhard Richter's Atlas sheets

Richter’s Atlas is like a scrapbook in exhibition form. The project brings together over 800 images, grouped and framed on pages. Much of the work explores the rise of a new post-war Germany, the relationship between the urban and nature, the past and present. It’s an absorbing insight into how ideas can transmute and change. A fascination with flames turns into a focus on the similar swirling texture of oil paint. Richter cuts up images, pasting together skies and seas to create the ideal abstract images - empty, lonely, emotive, epic.

 

Fire/Feuer, 1968, 51.7 cm x 66.7 cm, Atlas Sheet: 82

Fire/Feuer, 1968, 51.7 cm x 66.7 cm, Atlas Sheet: 83

But it’s his images of the Holocaust that bring you to tears. Gerhard experiments with photographs of concentration camps - blurring, repeating and smearing them. It makes the content even more shocking and frightening. As the experiments and photographs get increasingly abstract, Richter’s paintings, become more soulful and full of meaning.  -Francesca Gavin-

 

Photographs from Books/Fotos aus Büchern, 1967, 66.7 cm x 51.7 cm, Atlas Sheet: 19

Photographs from Books/Fotos aus Büchern, 1967, 66.7 cm x 51.7 cm, Atlas Sheet: 20

Richter's  Atlas goes to the heart of his work, showing over 5,000 photographs, drawings and diagrams he has compiled or created over 40 years. It is an extraordinary insight into his working process.

 

Venice/Venedig, 1970, 36.7 cm x 51.7 cm, Atlas Sheet: 152